Anna Chapin Ray

“ Rob glanced at the floor.
"I'd kneel, if I could and if there were room," he assured her. "It's not such bad fun, Janet, and I get bored to death sometimes."
"Bored in Quebec?" she said, in mock rebuke, for the gingham pinafore hid somewhat of his elegance, the stick had been left, forgotten, on the kitchen table, and Janet was fast forgetting both awe and admiration in a hearty liking for her jovial assistant.
"Yes, even here," he assented, and something, possibly the lurking memory of Day's rebuff, brought an unwonted minor key into his gay young voice. ”

“ Day watched him with unmeasured pride; but she talked to Ronald Leslie.
Once only, she had gone into Rob's room. The postman had brought a letter from one of his boy chums, and, receiving no answer to her repeated calls from the hall below, Day had mounted the stairs and knocked at her brother's door. She had found him, book in hand, but his eyes were absently fixed on the pair of little dove-coloured nuns passing in the street beneath. At her step, he roused himself, and turned to greet her with a brightening face.
"Oh, Day! It's you? Come in," he said, as he tossed his book aside. ”

“ Then Janet said shyly,—
"It is too bad for you to lose your drive."
"I don't care about driving," Rob said curtly. "I can go, any day. Oh, confound it! Now see what I've done!" And he held up the two fragments of the saucer which had given way under his impatient touch.
With rare tact, Janet suppressed her inclination to laugh at his crestfallen face. She was shrewd enough to know that the broken saucer was by no means Rob's only cause of trouble just then. Her experience of brothers had been limited to Ronald ”

“ Like most of his fellow countrymen, Ronald Leslie had in his own mind a well-established line between masculine and feminine duties, and, no matter how good might have been his intentions, it would never have occurred to him that it was possible for him to cross that line. ”

“ And Janet?" The words made two distinct questions.
"Yes. We have gone into partnership." Rob nodded across at Janet who was blushing above the cups. "We are predicting a great success for ourselves, too," he added, as Ronald drew Mrs. Argyle's chair back from the table.
"Mamma," Day turned to her mother almost petulantly; "do ask these people what has happened."
"Ronald told me. Mrs. Leslie is ill, and the maid has gone. What are you going to do about it, Janet?" she asked kindly, for she could not fail to admire the girlish energy with which Janet had thrown herself into the breach. ”

“ Argyle had her own sitting-room on the floor beneath.
"Too much trouble to move," he said, as he stretched himself, then folded his arms at the back of his yellow head. "Stay and talk to a fellow, Day." ”